Jean Porter

It’s difficult to explain Roller Derby’s history to a 21st century audience.

Two teams skated laps on a circular banked track. The idea was for members of one team to lap the other, picking up a point in the process. The winner had the most points after eight periods – with men and women dividing the time equally.

Roller Derby provided easy programming for TV networks in their infancy, and viewers flocked to watch the new sport.

In that first wave of skaters was a woman named Jean Porter. Born on the Six Nations Reserve in Ontario in 1930, she was part-Oneida and part-Mohawk. She spent her early years living in Buffalo, as her father was a mechanic and her mother worked as a seamstress.

At age 15, Jean went to see a Roller Derby match … and it didn’t take long for her to decide that skating was more attractive than studying. She dropped out of school to join the Derby, and she was one of the first Native American skaters. Her first match was at the North Side Coliseum in Fort Worth, Texas.

Porter was a good athlete, and she was also attractive. That led to a role in a short 1949 film called “Roller Derby Girl.” Jean shared the spotlight with such skaters as “Toughie” Brasuhn and Ann Cavello. The motion picture was nominated for an Oscar.

Porter was considered one of the top skaters in the sport and picked up nicknames as “Slugger” and “Big Red” – although she checked in at only 5-foot-3 and 114 pounds. Porter made her first All-Star team in 1952, and followed it with selections in 1953, 1954 (West), 1955, 1956 and 1958. She spanned the country, skating from Hawaii to Madison Square Garden in New York city. Because of her notoriety,

TransWorld Airlines named a plane after her and her photo was in Life magazine.

Porter retired in 1963 after 16 years of skating and was inducted into the Roller Derby Hall of Fame in 2007.

She passed away in 1990 in St. Catharines, Ontario.